My most recent novel is Eversion, published in the UK and USA in the summer of 2022.
Prior to Eversion I wrote Inhibitor Phase, a novel in the Revelation Space universe, which came out in 2021.
Before that, I completed the last two novels in the Revenger sequence about the Ness sisters, SHADOW
CAPTAIN (2019) and BONE SILENCE (2020).
My books to date are, in order and date of UK publication:
REVELATION SPACE (2000) BSFA and Clarke shortlist. Gothic space opera with slower than light travel and speculation about extra-terrestrial intelligences.
CHASM CITY (2001) BSFA winner in 2002. A hardboiled pursuit/revenge thriller set in the RS universe.
REDEMPTION ARK (2002) More fun with killer aliens.
ABSOLUTION GAP (2003) BSFA shortlist. End times approach; religious lunatics appear. Contains moving cathedrals and speculation about braneworlds.
CENTURY RAIN (2004) A murder mystery in 1959 Paris opens a can of worms for struggling PI and jazzman Wendell Floyd. Space opera, parallel worlds, jazz, etc. A personal favorite of mine, although I’ve sworn there will never be a sequel.
PUSHING ICE (2005) Clarke shortlist. Near future space exploration and first contact, and a wild ride into the deep, distant future for the crew of the mining vehicle Rockhopper. Perhaps my most Clarkean book to date. I have always said I would return to this universe one day and I still hope to do so.
THE PREFECT (2007) Crime and punishment in the RS universe. A crisis for Prefect Dreyfus in the near-utopia of the Glitter Band. 2017 will see the publication of the follow-up, set two years after the events of this book and featuring the established cast.
HOUSE OF SUNS (2008) Clarke shortlist. Six million years in the future, starfaring clones, tensions between human and robot metacivilisations, King Crimson jokes. This was a very enjoyable novel to write, especially after the claustrophobic THE PREFECT and I think it shows. Again, I would like to return to this universe but I have no fixed plans for when that will happen.
TERMINAL WORLD (2010) Wales Book of the Year finalist. Steampunky action on a dying world, with a mystery under the skin of things.
BLUE REMEMBERED EARTH (2012), ON THE STEEL BREEZE (2013), POSEIDON’S WAKE (2015): The Poseidon’s Children trilogy, tracing the members of a spacefaring African family across many centuries of future history, but with only tenuous connections between the books. My intention was that the individual volumes would each function as a well-formed standalone novel. I am open to the idea of another book in this sequence, if the ideas and will are there.
THE MEDUSA CHRONICLES (2016): with Stephen Baxter. Steve and I hatched an idea to write a sequel to Arthur C Clarke’s seminal short story “A Meeting with Medusa” and with the kind permission of the Clarke estate we were able to do so. Our novel takes the character Howard Falcon and catapults him across centuries of tension and strife between human and robotic forces, with Falcon as an uneasy and at times unwilling intermediary between the two.
REVENGER (2016): a standalone novel unrelated to any of the others, set more than ten million years in the future, and dealing with the adventures of the Ness sisters in a pirate-influenced action story with space operatic overtones.
ELYSIUM FIRE (2018): a sequel to THE PREFECT (the latter now retitled AURORA RISING in the UK).
SHADOW CAPTAIN (2019): the second book concerning the Ness sisters, following from Revenger.
BONE SILENCE (2020): the third and final novel of the Ness sisters.
INHIBITOR PHASE (2021).
EVERSION (2022).
Of my books to date, six are set in the same “Revelation Space” universe. The reading order isn’t that critical, in my view, but it probably improves things to read REVELATION SPACE, REDEMPTION ARK and ABSOLUTION GAP in that sequence. THE PREFECT (AURORA RISING) and ELYSIUM FIRE may be read alone or jointly, but should best be read in the above order. CHASM CITY, as well as the collections DIAMOND DOGS, TURQUOISE DAYS and GALACTIC NORTH, can be read at any point.
CENTURY RAIN, PUSHING ICE, HOUSE OF SUNS and TERMINAL WORLD are all unrelated standalone novels. I have vague intentions to return to the universes of PI and HOS, but nothing firm, and I don’t intend to return to the worlds of CR or TW, much as I’m fond of those books. There are three books in the REVENGER sequence.
I’ve also written a Doctor Who novel, HARVEST OF TIME, about which I say a bit more here.
